Ninth Annual Open House New York: A Photo Gallery

Open House New York (OHNY), the annual citywide event to celebrate New York’s most extraordinary architectural sites, again offered rare access to hundreds of unique spaces this past weekend, October 15–16. Volunteers and experts guided visitors through hundreds of locations, gave presentations and tours, and even held special performances. Now in its ninth year, OHNY is one of the city’s most beloved events that exemplifies its rich cultural character and diversity of architectural styles.

“This is the one weekend each year when thousands of New Yorkers and tourists alike are given access to spaces that are not normally open to the public,” says Renee Schacht, executive director of OHNY. “As in previous years, we will be opening the doors and providing tours through sites that span the past, present, and future of the city’s built-environment from the Bowne House, built in 1661 in Flushing, Queens—the best preserved example of an Anglo-Dutch colonial house in the United States—to Mercedes House, a new, glass and steel residential building whose staircase-like green rooftop terraces have redefined the New York skyline.”

This year’s hotly anticipated sites included the Hotel Americano, a new glass hotel adjacent to the High Line with an industrial metal mesh façade, Sperone Westwater, a new Bowery art gallery featuring a moving exhibition room, and Seven World Trade Center, the first tower rebuilt at the WTC site.

In addition, many familiar OHNY sites were once again opened to the public, including Alice Austen House, Brooklyn Navy Yard, East Harlem School, Eldridge Street Synagogue, the New York Public Library, New York Marble Cemetery, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Lincoln Center, and Grace Church. More than 200,000 people participated in the free two-day event, which attracted people from around the country and globe.

To celebrate OHNY and all the spectacular architecture that New York has to offer, take a look at this photo slide show that features shots from past OHNY weekends, including more than a dozen locations around the city, such as Prince George Hotel, the U.S. Customs House, TWA Terminal, St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, the Grand Lodge of Masons, Grant’s Tomb, the abandoned hospital structures on Ellis and Roosevelt Islands, Gould Memorial Library, and more. To learn more about OHNY, visit the organization’s website www.ohny.org.